Small Town Secrets (Some Very English Murders Book 2) (19 page)
Read Small Town Secrets (Some Very English Murders Book 2) Online
Authors: Issy Brooke
Even if she still held herself to be mostly in the right.
Sisterly spite, of course. Like Blue’s stupid, pointless
childish spite.
And thinking of spite, she had to remember Clarissa. The
vile woman was still active online. She’d been taken in for formal questioning
– according to Cath, Clarissa had thought she was being investigated for
Warren’s death still, and had been shocked into silence when confronted with
the evidence of her hacking.
But no further action had been taken against her. She’d
been warned, and notes made, but that was all. The whole episode left a rather
bitter taste in Penny’s mouth. She felt more vulnerable online, now, in spite
of Taz’s help and direction.
At the crossroads where the High Street ended and her own
road began, opposite, she was just looking to the right when she was startled
by someone greeting her from the left.
“Now then, Penny May,” said Lee, grinning at her.
“Hi! You made me jump.”
“Sorry. Is that the finished calendar?” he asked.
“Yes.” She clutched it tighter to her chest.
“What’s up?”
“They hated it.”
“Who?”
“The camera club,” she explained. “Well, mostly Eric.”
“Can I see? Eric is a … well, you know what he is.”
“He is that, and I sort of told him so, too.” She passed
the calendar over with some reluctance.
Lee flicked through it. He grinned at the shot of the
terrier puppies in a basket, and nodded at a very arty shot of a pale greyhound
languidly lying down in the forge. “These are good. Any of yours in here?”
“The Rottie on the slide,” she said. “It’s October.”
He thumbed through and held it out at arm’s length. “She’s
a cute one. That’s your dog, isn’t it? Daft looking thing.”
“You like it? The photo, I mean?”
“Yeah, it works. It’s what people want, isn’t it? Something
a bit different, but not too different. You’ve over-exposed it a bit, you know.
Look at that patch of sky. But honestly, I don’t reckon anyone’s going to
notice. It’s always tricky when there’s so much lightness in a shot.”
“Thank you so much. You don’t know how much that means to
me,” she said, wanting to hug him.
He shrugged, embarrassed by her over-enthusiastic thanks.
“Well, you know,” he said, meaninglessly. He paused, then said, “Anyway. The
camera club are all serious about photography and that, but that doesn’t mean
they know what makes an appealing photo. You’ve got a good eye.”
“Oh. Thank you.”
“S’all right. I mean, your technical skill’s not there,
yet, but I can see what you’re trying to do.” He shuffled his feet, and she got
the feeling he wanted to say more, but couldn’t.
It was awkward. Penny had seen Lee around over the past few
weeks, since he led the police to Blue’s hiding place, but she hadn’t approached
him to talk to him. Drew’s advice had been to never mention any of it again to
him, and to simply treat him as if none of it had happened. “It’s a man thing,”
he had said. “We don’t need to rehash what happened, and there’s a lot of stuff
that came out that he’s not going to be proud of, so don’t remind him of that.”
She couldn’t bite her tongue. “How’s Natasha?”
“Fine.” He spoke hastily and she knew from his expression
that she had to leave it alone. With a supreme effort of will, she managed it.
“So, I’m glad that the rain has stopped,” she said.
With relief, he nodded. “Yeah, aye, it’s better now. Uh. So
if you want to do some more urbexing, I wanted to say, you know, you’re always
welcome to come back. Have you got a tripod?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Great. Because you need to start using it.”
“I have been.”
“Oh? Right. So you need to start using it properly, then.
Your depth of field isn’t always the best for the type of picture you’re trying
to do. I’m sorry … I don’t want to sound like Eric.”
“You are in no danger of sounding like Eric,” she assured
him. “Thanks for the invite back. I’d love to come. And I welcome any advice
you can give me.”
He grinned broadly. She knew, then, that Drew had been
right; Lee would never discuss the events of the past with her, but he would
treat her with perfect friendliness if they just moved forward as if nothing
had ever happened. “Great. Keep an eye out on the Facebook page. I’ll make sure
to let you know about our next raid. Sorry, expedition. We could do with a female
influence. There are more of us to meet, but it can get a bit macho and
blokey.”
“I’m not coming as some token woman just to help calm them
all down,” she protested.
He was unrepentant. “It will help. Anyway you need help
with your photos, so it’s reciprocal.”
He was about to move away but he stopped, and added, “And
another thing. Your, er, friend Drew.”
“Yes?”
“Why don’t you bring him along, too? We’re not all like
Blue. Drew’s good with fields and signs and stuff. I reckon he has knowledge we
could use, you know?”
She laughed out loud. “I reckon he has,” she said. “Okay.
I’ll talk to him.”
Lee raised a hand and walked away.
Penny continued home, deep in thought. It would be nice,
she reflected, to have something in common with Drew on a more equal footing.
She loved going out with him and learning about the countryside, but it was
sometimes more like a teacher and student relationship.
She was finally admitting to herself that she wanted more
than that.
And he was always so busy that he constantly forgot to get
in touch. She hated to be the pest, the one that had to run around after him.
The urbex invitation was a good excuse to call him without seeming creepy or
clingy.
* * * *
Penny went outside with Kali to make the most of the
pleasant evening air. She pegged out a batch of stencilled fabric pieces to
dry. She was determined to continue at the local craft fairs, and there was one
coming up in a few weeks’ time. She had also resumed her visits to the craft
group in Upper Glenfield, and heard more about the proposed Sculpture Trail,
which was exciting even if sculpture wasn’t really her medium.
Kali sat by her leg and leaned on her, wanting some fuss.
“Shall we do some training?” Penny asked her.
Kali grumbled but wagged her tail. Penny had been surprised
to discover that Kali’s repertoire of tricks didn’t seem to work as well once
they were in the garden. It was almost as if she had to learn everything all
over again. So, with the aid of treats and encouragement, they began to work
through some of her more basic commands. Penny was so engrossed in shaking a
paw and rolling over that she didn’t hear her mobile phone ringing.
When she went back inside, she saw she’d missed a call from
Francine, and she felt guilty. She never had called her.
She listened to Francine’s message with a growing alarm.
“You’ve been such an inspiration to me!” the distant voice
warbled to the voicemail service. “The way you are doing your art and your
craft! So I’ve changed my life! I’m manifesting my true destiny!”
And most ominously of all:
“I’m coming up to see you!”
The End…
…for now.
Coming soon: Small Town Suspicions! Sign up to my mailing
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This is the bit you don’t need to read, but if you enjoyed
the book you might want to find out more.
I’ve got a website at
http://www.issybrooke.com
where I have more information about the characters, about Lincolnshire, and the
fictional town of Glenfield - including a map. It’s a work in progress.
The dog in this story, Kali, is based on our own rescue
dog, a Rottie cross called Stella. That’s her on the cover of this book. She’s
a stressed out and reactive thing, and we’re still working through her issues.
I wish it was as easy as Penny found it … you can read more about dogs on my
website, too. And look at photos. Everyone loves photos of dogs, right?
There are more books coming in this series (I wrote a heap
all at once). So you can check out what Penny gets up to next in Small Town
Suspicions. What troubles will Francine bring with her? How will the Sculpture
Trail evolve? And who would kill a reclusive artist?
Oh, I’m on Facebook here –
https://www.facebook.com/issy.brooke
– and Twitter here – @IssyBrooke – but as for the million other social media
sites, nope. I’d rather be writing…
Thank you for reading.
Issy.